Cooper Tire WM-SA2 Review

Late last year, the United States Department of Commerce imposed a tariff on Chinese manufactured tires that ranges from 15 to 18 percent.

This new tariff is in addition to the already existing 4 percent tariff and more tariffs could be levied in the future. Tires that once cost $60 could now be $73. This is having a huge effect on the tire industry as most manufacturers, big or small, currently have factories in China.

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That includes many American manufacturers like Cooper Tire. But rather than be worried, Cooper sees these new tariffs as an opportunity. Beside its plants in China, Cooper has tariff-free manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and other regions in Asia. This is opening the door for a new wave of affordable tires to inundate the market. Tires like the WM-SA2.

The WM-SA2 is part of Copper’s WeatherMaster line-up of winter tires. Manufactured in the United Kingdom, the SA2 is a studless performance touring winter tire intended for coupes and sportier sedans. With the smallest fitment starting around $ 62, the WM-SA2 is a value-driven tire that Cooper claims will deliver a lot of performance for the money.

The WM-SA2 is a high performance winter tire, not a dedicated snow tire. It’s meant for people who live in cold-climate metro areas with daily, traffic-filled commutes. Place where it does snow quite often and temperatures spend most of the winter below freezing, but the roads are fairly well maintained by an army of snow-removal equipment. Although the WM-SA2 can handle four-inches of snow without issue, it really excels at slush, ice and dry road conditions.

As is the case with the majority of winter tires, the WM-SA2 is equipped with hundreds of grippy sipes, arranged in traction blocks. Sipes are the squiggly lines cut into a tires tread that work like mini-squeegees to wipe snow and slush away from the tire while providing optimal grip on icy surfaces.

The center rib of the WM-SA2 is nearly solid, minus a multitude of thin sipes. This provides a constant contact patch to the road for improved dry weather handling and better steering feel. Of course the tire is full of silica, the magic ingredient that allows the tire to remain flexible at low temperatures without sacrificing overall tread wear.

To see how well the WM-SA2 performs, we were invited to an unconventional test outside of Montreal, Quebec. Instead of a street drive or snowy parking lot slalom that usually occurs on tire tests, we drove around a large ice covered skidpad. That might sound like a lot of play and no work, but the ability to induce and control a slide on ice reflects how well a tire performs when conditions turn slippery.

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The cars we were using are 2014 BMW 320i xDrives. One was equipped with the Cooper Tire WM-SA2 while the other was wearing Continental Contiwintercontact TS 830 winter tires.

Immediately it was apparent that the Cooper had more grip on the ice. Starting a slide took much more effort and higher speeds as the SA2s refused to lose traction. The 320i fitted with the Continental tires would drift around the oval much slower than the Bimmer with WM-SA2 tires. Although this is more fun while doing some reckless stunt driving, it doesn’t translate well to real world conditions where a patch of ice can sneak up suddenly and unexpectedly.

The Cooper WM-SA2s were always looking for grip, in the snow-ice mix. They behaved great and had enough grip to prevent drifting when it wasn’t wanted compared to the other tires that always wanted to let the car pitch sideways.